After ABC Nightline's special episode on Apple's supply chain ran on Tuesday, the iPad maker has issued a correction on one claim by the show, while the U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate a recent lawsuit brought by ailing Eastman Kodak against Apple and HTC. Finally, Samsung announced on Thursday that it has sold 20 million Galaxy S II units since the smartphone launched last April.

iFactory

"iFactory: Inside Apple" aired late Tuesday night and was widely reported as containing few real surprises. Throughout the 30-minute broadcast, reporter Bill Weir toured facilities and interviewed Foxconn workers, as well as executives at the company and the Fair Labor Association.

ABC News reported on Wednesday that Apple, Foxconn and the FLA each responded to the report with their own corrections and clarifications.

In particular, Apple took issue with the translation of a worker's response that she processed 6,000 units per day in her role.

“In manufacturing parlance this is called deburring. Her line processes 3,000 units per shift, with two shifts per day for a total of 6,000. A single operator at Ms. Zhou’s station would deburr 3,000 iPads in a shift,” Apple said in a statement.

The company attributed the confusion to a mistranslation, asserting that it was impossible for the worker to work back-to-back 12-hour shifts and stay on for her next day's shift, effectively working 36 hours straight.

Foxconn spoke up to correct the accusation that starting pay at Foxconn is too low for payroll tax withdrawal.

“We have over 75 percent of the employees in the category of earning at least 2,200 RMB ($349/month) basic compensation standard. That means they are earning 13.75 RMB ($2.18) per hour. If they work overtime on the weekend, they will earn 27 RMB ($4.28) per hour. In order to reach 3500 to be taxable, they will have to work 47 OT hours to reach 3,500,” the company said.

“If the overtime hours are in weekdays, they have to work around 63 hours per month to reach that level of salary to be taxable,” the statement read, adding that the assertion is only true "when applying to the entry-level workers while over 75 percent are already over the probation and earning more than 2,200 RMB basic salary.”

Foxconn responded to criticism last week by promising wage increases of between 16 to 25 percent for its workers.

Fair Labor Association president Auret van Heerden told ABC News that discussions with Apple to join the association began in April 2007. They eventually broke down in March 2008, but were picked back up when the FLA did some pilot survey work for the company.

"That pilot led to a second activity that I believe contributed to the decision to join the FLA at the end of 2011. I, of course, cannot speak for Apple but I do believe that the decision to join was probably taken some months before (and therefore well before) The New York Times articles.”

The Times caused a stir last month when it published a report citing several anonymous former Apple executives who claimed Apple was aware of egregious labor rights violations within its supply chain but chose to ignore them.

Apple announced that it was joining the FLA last month with the release of its annual supplier responsibility report. Inspections from the FLA began last week, with van Heerden declaring that conditions at Foxconn were better than average. However, one non-profit organization claims Foxconn management were "prepared" for the inspections and tried to hide away violations that would have been flagged. van Heerden has said he expected the manufacturer to put on a show and committed the organization to doing a "bottom up" assessment to ferret out any violations.

Kodak

Even as the once-mighty photography giant is fighting for survival after filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Kodak will have another chance to milk its intellectual property for settlement money.

The ITC announced Wednesday (via Bloomberg) that it would look into a complaint filed by Kodak against Apple and HTC on Jan. 10, 2012 over patents related to image transmission. Apple's iPad and iPhone are named in the suit, as well as HTC's Flyer tablet and Wildfire S phone.

The case will proceed while Kodak's patents are expected to eventually make their way to the auction block as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Apple has actually asked permission from the bankruptcy court to sue Kodak, alleging further patent infringement beyond cases it has already brought against the company. Meanwhile, a ruling on the original Kodak ITC lawsuit against Apple has been postponed until late this year.

Samsung Galaxy S II

South Korean electronics maker Samsung announced a milestone on Thursday, touting 20 million unit sales of its Galaxy S II smartphone in less than a year, Reuters reports. Samsung's last-generation Galaxy S handset reached 22 million in sales since the device was launched in 2010, the company's statement also noted.

The company has been relatively tight-lipped about smartphone unit shipments in recent quarters, leaving analysts scrambling to generate estimates to compare it against rival Apple. Market research firm IDC said earlier this month that it believes Samsung sold 94 million smartphones last fiscal year and more than 30 million alone in the December quarter.

Buoyed by the international success of its iPhone 4S, Apple saw record iPhone sales of 37 million units in the December quarter. For calendar 2011, Apple had a total of 93 million iPhones sold, ending up just behind estimates of Samsung's tally for the year.

The fierce competition between Apple and Samsung has spread to the courtroom, as the two companies are locked in a tense disagreement over patents. Apple has, in fact, targeted the Galaxy S II in some of its lawsuits, asking courts to ban sales of the allegedly infringing device.

Samsung has also fought back with a series of television ads that mock customers waiting in line for a new iPhone. The company even purchased highly-coveted Super Bowl commercial space to downplay the iPhone and promote the U.S launch of its Galaxy Note hybrid phone/tablet.

Either way, even though it looks like a toy to me, Apple needs competition even if people feel it can still make great products without it. It would be nice though if that competition came without such blatant copying.

Pity that Samsung has a habit of giving out sales to resellers rather thn end users. So thT could be 20 million sold to go on shelves, but much less in actual users hands

True, but you can only channel stuff so much and based on this duration even if they are referring to the channels it's safe to say that Samsung will hit the 20 million mark in bona fide sales to end users soon enough to say they have sold 20 million units over just shipped.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Pity that Samsung has a habit of giving out sales to resellers rather thn end users. So thT could be 20 million sold to go on shelves, but much less in actual users hands

Well the Galaxy line of Smart phones is the second most popular in the world (iPhone is #1 if you really did not know). Not surprising 20 million people decided to purchase on. I have one Galaxy S II that my sister uses. I use a Galaxy Nexus (I know it does not count). The line is famous and popular don't kid yourself.

Well the Galaxy line of Smart phones is the second most popular in the world (iPhone is #1 if you really did not know). Not surprising 20 million people decided to purchase on. I have one Galaxy S II that my sister uses. I use a Galaxy Nexus (I know it does not count). The line is famous and popular don't kid yourself.

I notice Samsung have put their S-cloud service on hold due to technical difficulties but Samsung University is proceeding as planned.

Such an innovative company, I wonder how they came up with these.

PS I dumped my Samsung fridge last week, the Bosch that replaced it is going well.

Better than my Bose, better than my Skullcandy's, listening to Mozart through my LeBron James limited edition PowerBeats by Dre is almost as good as my Sennheisers.

Workers being kidnapped! Phones being tapped! Over 50 dead so far! Suicides! Leukemia!

Calling all naive activists across the globe! Go ahead and protest this outrage right now! Do your good little leftist duty for the day. But please take a shower before you go out and protest as your kind is not exactly known for cleanliness and we can't have you contaminating any innocent bystanders due to your lack of general hygiene, manners, intelligence and common decency.

Who and what the hell am I talking about? Am I talking about Apple? Nah. Am I talking about Foxconn? Nah. I am of course talking about Samsung!

I came across this site called stopsamsung on wordpress and according to them, all of the things which I listed in the first sentence of this thread are true.

With all of the bogus stories being invented by certain ignorant people regarding Apple and China, it seems strange to me that there is no talk of Samsung or any other companies. Since they announced a milestone and sold 20 million phones of one particular model, I feel that the spotlight should be on them too, being the fair minded person that I am. Foxconn seems like paradise compared to Samsung.

Now, I of course do not really give a crap about either of those situations, but I just wanted to point out how ridiculous, clueless and comical the anti-Apple activists are. I'm sure that we'll unfortunately be reading more about these clueless people tomorrow because of the Apple shareholder meeting. The news should be about Apple and Apple products, instead we'll be reading about some ignorant dipshits who are whoring for attention.

Workers being kidnapped! Phones being tapped! Over 50 dead so far! Suicides! Leukemia!

Calling all naive activists across the globe! Go ahead and protest this outrage right now! Do your good little leftist duty for the day. But please take a shower before you go out and protest as your kind is not exactly known for cleanliness and we can't have you contaminating any innocent bystanders due to your lack of general hygiene, manners, intelligence and common decency.

Who and what the hell am I talking about? Am I talking about Apple? Nah. Am I talking about Foxconn? Nah. I am of course talking about Samsung!

I came across this site called stopsamsung on wordpress and according to them, all of the things which I listed in the first sentence of this thread are true.

With all of the bogus stories being invented by certain ignorant people regarding Apple and China, it seems strange to me that there is no talk of Samsung or any other companies. Since they announced a milestone and sold 20 million phones of one particular model, I feel that the spotlight should be on them too, being the fair minded person that I am. Foxconn seems like paradise compared to Samsung.

Now, I of course do not really give a crap about either of those situations, but I just wanted to point out how ridiculous, clueless and comical the anti-Apple activists are. I'm sure that we'll unfortunately be reading more about these clueless people tomorrow because of the Apple shareholder meeting. The news should be about Apple and Apple products, instead we'll be reading about some ignorant dipshits who are whoring for attention.

Hey, Rush, let's keep the dialog focused on the subject at hand and keep insane right wing rhetoric out of here... There's plenty of that sort of lunacy on Fox to keep you thoroughly entertained.

Workers being kidnapped! Phones being tapped! Over 50 dead so far! Suicides! Leukemia!

Calling all naive activists across the globe! Go ahead and protest this outrage right now! Do your good little leftist duty for the day. But please take a shower before you go out and protest as your kind is not exactly known for cleanliness and we can't have you contaminating any innocent bystanders due to your lack of general hygiene, manners, intelligence and common decency.

Who and what the hell am I talking about? Am I talking about Apple? Nah. Am I talking about Foxconn? Nah. I am of course talking about Samsung!

I came across this site called stopsamsung on wordpress and according to them, all of the things which I listed in the first sentence of this thread are true.

With all of the bogus stories being invented by certain ignorant people regarding Apple and China, it seems strange to me that there is no talk of Samsung or any other companies. Since they announced a milestone and sold 20 million phones of one particular model, I feel that the spotlight should be on them too, being the fair minded person that I am. Foxconn seems like paradise compared to Samsung.

Now, I of course do not really give a crap about either of those situations, but I just wanted to point out how ridiculous, clueless and comical the anti-Apple activists are. I'm sure that we'll unfortunately be reading more about these clueless people tomorrow because of the Apple shareholder meeting. The news should be about Apple and Apple products, instead we'll be reading about some ignorant dipshits who are whoring for attention.

3000 iPads in a 12hr shift is 250/hr or 4.2/min or one every 14.4s. Did they happen to show someone doing this in the segment? If you include a 1hr lunch and a couple 10 or 15m breaks then the rate is even faster. I can't imagine anyone keeping this up all day, day after day. something doesn't seem right.

3000 iPads in a 12hr shift is 250/hr or 4.2/min or one every 14.4s. Did they happen to show someone doing this in the segment? If you include a 1hr lunch and a couple 10 or 15m breaks then the rate is even faster. I can't imagine anyone keeping this up all day, day after day. something doesn't seem right.

As a young adult I used to print 1200 tee shirts in an hour, or one every 3 seconds, and got paid $10 per hour, no overtime, and worked 95 hour weeks.

everyone should stop their whingeing, no-one is forcing people to work, or want stuff they don't need.

Apple needs to put out real updates or will be delegated to a defunct niche.

Utter nonsense. Even though 2011 was pretty much an 'evolutionary' year for many companies...2012 is promising to be the the 'real' deal. At the very least, best in class products (Apples!) get to be even better discounting obvious flaws like not being able to make the toast, put you to bed or think for you.

'Real?' Bar the languishing Mac Pro, what product are you talking about?

A significant iPad 3 imminent. iPhone '5' about 6-7 months away.

A plethora of Mac updates from top to bottom.

Apple has 100 billion in the bank. Record Mac sales that continue to outgrow the PC market.

The iPad is smashing the opposition. The 4s is putting the hurt on Android. (Yes, a single phone vs the many lines of Android. And now Apple has 'free' or cheaper phones eg iphone 3GS and iPHone 4...Android isn't having the 'cheapo' sales all it's own way.)

Apple's eco system from the App store to iTunes to the way the iOS devices and Macs just 'play' with one another (and set to play even better with the promising Mountain Lion...) is in a class of it's own.

They're leading the way on laptops with the super popular Air...that traditional 'computer' companies are falling over themselves to copy/cash in on.

Apple have the competition beat on Air pricing, Pad pricing and offer best in class pricing for the 4S.

They're hurtling towards 500 million iOS devices sold in the next few years. And they're selling 20 million Macs a year now. How long before the userbase is 100 million?

Even continuing at their current rate, Apple is a Tsunami that few competitors will be able to resist.

Units are improving at Apple. But their dollar share is eclipsing by an order of magnitude those that rely on 'volume/units' alone.

Lemon Bon Bon.

You know, for a company that specializes in the video-graphics market, you'd think that they would offer top-of-the-line GPUs...

3000 iPads in a 12hr shift is 250/hr or 4.2/min or one every 14.4s. Did they happen to show someone doing this in the segment? If you include a 1hr lunch and a couple 10 or 15m breaks then the rate is even faster. I can't imagine anyone keeping this up all day, day after day. something doesn't seem right.

I guess you have never been in a US Auto Assembly plant ... there are plenty of production jobs in the US that are monotonous, repetitive and at a very high pace.

3000 iPads in a 12hr shift is 250/hr or 4.2/min or one every 14.4s. Did they happen to show someone doing this in the segment? If you include a 1hr lunch and a couple 10 or 15m breaks then the rate is even faster. I can't imagine anyone keeping this up all day, day after day. something doesn't seem right.

Just because you have no experience doing a similar type of repetitive work doesn't mean it doesn't exist, even in such a "civilized" place as the U.S.. This sounds like fairly standard assembly line work.

The question should be regarding breaks, especially those to allow movement so as to avoid repetitive motion injuries.

Pity that Samsung has a habit of giving out sales to resellers rather thn end users. So thT could be 20 million sold to go on shelves, but much less in actual users hands

That's really only a practical argument when dealing with a new product release, as OEMs often ship massive amounts to resellers for the launch. Over time, the difference between "shipped" and "sold" grows minuscule.

That said, Samsung is rather known for having new products released all the time

That's really only a practical argument when dealing with a new product release, as OEMs often ship massive amounts to resellers for the launch. Over time, the difference between "shipped" and "sold" grows minuscule.

That said, Samsung is rather known for having new products released all the time

Not to mentioned they are the next best thing from iPhone. Very important in East and Southeast Asia where 2/3 of iPhone stocks lost to scalpers. And Apple warranty do not exists. Hardware and function wise, Galaxy and iPhone are now close enough to be like Coke and Pepsi.

Samsung does make real ground in countries that smartphones are only recently introduced and Apple cannot bring music and movie stores into play for whatever reason. Licensing, copyright or whatever, but no iTune stores south of China has music, movie and podcast on catalogs.

Not that I hated Apple, but Apple is fighting with one foot in a bucket outside Western market.

It's amazing how the Galaxy looks like nothing more than a giant iPhone!

Funny that I thought the same thing, which should not be a shock. Yet it is, every time I see any android phone. I have to wonder why anyone would buy a direct copy of another device with a copied OS as well. Obviously cheap knock-offs are never as good as the real thing. But most of the world has always been satisfied with buying copies of products that are known to be the best in their genre. We who believe life is to short to settle for cheap imitations are in the minority. Try to look at that as a good thing. (even though I cannot no matter how hard I try)

Workers being kidnapped! Phones being tapped! Over 50 dead so far! Suicides! Leukemia!

Calling all naive activists across the globe! Go ahead and protest this outrage right now! Do your good little leftist duty for the day. But please take a shower before you go out and protest as your kind is not exactly known for cleanliness and we can't have you contaminating any innocent bystanders due to your lack of general hygiene, manners, intelligence and common decency.

Who and what the hell am I talking about? Am I talking about Apple? Nah. Am I talking about Foxconn? Nah. I am of course talking about Samsung!

I came across this site called stopsamsung on wordpress and according to them, all of the things which I listed in the first sentence of this thread are true.

With all of the bogus stories being invented by certain ignorant people regarding Apple and China, it seems strange to me that there is no talk of Samsung or any other companies. Since they announced a milestone and sold 20 million phones of one particular model, I feel that the spotlight should be on them too, being the fair minded person that I am. Foxconn seems like paradise compared to Samsung.

Now, I of course do not really give a crap about either of those situations, but I just wanted to point out how ridiculous, clueless and comical the anti-Apple activists are. I'm sure that we'll unfortunately be reading more about these clueless people tomorrow because of the Apple shareholder meeting. The news should be about Apple and Apple products, instead we'll be reading about some ignorant dipshits who are whoring for attention.

You need not spew your right wing elitist propaganda again and again, thread after thread. Remember do not point out the spec in your brother's eye when you have a plank in yours.

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example" Mark Twain"Just because something is deemed the law doesn't make it just" - SolipsismX

20 million my ass. It's not impressive at all. Samsung probably pushed dealers to overstock their inventories with s2 products that will take years to sell. These dealers should stop selling Samsung altogether or at least report Samsung to the Federal Trade Commission for bullying. It would suck to be a Samsung dealer hoarding inventory that might never sell when Samsung releases new smart phone every month. The number probably includes free giveaways in other countries where customers are smart and would never spend money on a Samsung product.

Unfortunately, due to recent conduct I cannot fully trust what Samsung tells us. As others have said, sales or shipped? They have a habit of touting bigger or better numbers than they really have acheived. Another example being the thickness of their Galaxy SII phone, which they claim is 8.49mm. What they fail to mention is that that is the thickness of their phone at its thinnest point. I believe it was reported here on AI that they infact lost a case against apple on who has the thinner smartphone, since once Samsung's phone was measured at its thickest point, it turned out to be thicker than the 9.3mm of the iPhone 4/S.

Apple has always measured thickness of their devices at the thickest point, or have been clear when one part of a device has been a different thickness than the thickest point, such as the original Macbook Air.

It's amazing how the Galaxy looks like nothing more than a giant iPhone!

As much as I don't like Touchwiz and do think it's an Apple ripoff, these pictures are pretty misleading. They show the app drawer to emphasize visual similarity to Apple's grid of apps. Yet, the reality of Android is that you use the desktop and widgets. That should lead to both appearance and function that is not similar to the iPhone.

Unfortunately, due to recent conduct I cannot fully trust what Samsung tells us. As others have said, sales or shipped? They have a habit of touting bigger or better numbers than they really have acheived. Another example being the thickness of their Galaxy SII phone, which they claim is 8.49mm. What they fail to mention is that that is the thickness of their phone at its thinnest point. I believe it was reported here on AI that they infact lost a case against apple on who has the thinner smartphone, since once Samsung's phone was measured at its thickest point, it turned out to be thicker than the 9.3mm of the iPhone 4/S.

Apple has always measured thickness of their devices at the thickest point, or have been clear when one part of a device has been a different thickness than the thickest point, such as the original Macbook Air.

That would be quite misleading : contrary to your rant, Samsung Galaxy S II is thinner overall, but there is a bump towards the lower end of the phone - that is why the Brits recently rejected Samsung's complaint against Apple's misleading ad.